Almond Butter Balls

One of my favorite cookies every year during the Holidays are butter balls rolled in powdered sugar. Most usually they are made with pecans or walnuts. This time around, I made them with almonds, which happen to be my favorite nut. If you need to make a Christmas cookie this year, this is the one. And don't worry, I won't be offended if you use walnuts instead ;)

1 cup butter, softened
5 tbs granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sliced almonds
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbs powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the sugar and butter. It may seem like not a lot of sugar in the dough, but you will be rolling the cookie in sugar. Next, add the vanilla extract

Add the salt and nuts to the butter mixture. You can crush the almond slices a bit more if you like. Make sure to thoroughly coat the almonds in the butter mixture.

Add the flour. Make sure to mix well. The batter will be very crumbly.

Shape into 1 inch balls. They do not have to be perfect. Bake for 15 minutes. They should be a little brown on top. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for a minute or so before trying to roll in sugar. Just take each ball, place in powdered sugar, and roll around.

I made these for a holiday treat for the people I work with. I also made gingerbread muffins that I dusted in powdered sugar, and put gingerbread men toothpicks in. Super cute!